ESL academic ghostwriting stories

There have been some really good rounds of arguing about ESL writers on the forum. There have also been a lot of vitriolic statements thrown around regarding this topic. I'm not looking to make any of this go away, however I think it would be interesting to hear some of the back stories on the ESL writers from eastern Europe, Africa, and Asia. I'd also like to hear from the scammers. Just state your country of origin, qualifications, education background, etc. and briefly explain how you got into ESL academic ghostwriting. I really do not know a single thing about most of the ESL writers.

A typical story of an ESL essay writer located in Africa:

1. My real name is: Adongo Ogotas and I live in Kenya. I chose a serious-sounding English name: Paul Boldens, PhD and registered a new email: paul.boldens.phd@gmail.

2. I have created a fake resume and included fake academic credentials (eg. Cambridge Business School graduate). I have even photoshoped a fake diploma that looks almost like a real one.

3. I have sent this fake resume and writing samples to selected UK and US writing services. When they asked me to fill out a tax form, I provided a fake address, fake social SS#, and a fake phone number (this one actually real - my buddy works in a car repair shop).

4. I've been accepted as a writer and have even managed to complete a couple of orders (all required a serious revision though).

Finally, after yet another revision, they have realized that I'm not Paul Boldens, PhD, and that I use fake/proxy servers.

I repeat the points above and life goes on ;).

Thanks Major! That's perfect! Next? Who wants to counter with a "real" story. Name calling and vomit spewing is okay, just try to pepper in some facts.

The funny part is that it's a real story :).

Graphophobius, they're pretty much all the same. They seem to truly believe that their writing is flawless. Plus, lying is as natural to them as breathing.

Thanks for the input. Given what I've seen here, you may just be perfectly right. You guys have been doing this a lot longer than me.

Even so, I'm hoping that at least one will bite. For example, that MeoKhan (from Pakistan) guy seems to be fairly legit. I haven't read all of his posts, but what I have seen seems to be tempered with reason and understanding. And then there is that other guy, Antarch from Nigeria, who has thrown some really weird stuff my way. I'd really like to know his story.

So, if you are an ESL writer from Nigeria who is taking on clients from native English speaking countries, then I wonder how many you need to do to make a comfortable living. If you live in Lagos, then the same cost of living is a bit more than what it is for me in Detroit. In Abuja, it a bit less. But this all hides the fact that about one half of the Nigerians live is relatively extreme poverty. So if you are used to living on less than a few dollars per day, then a couple of good clients per month could go a long way. Or maybe your doing a bunch of papers per month for less than 10 USD per page. At any rate, Wikipedia says that life expectancy is around 52 years, so you don't have the same retirement concerns as me, if at all. I don't know. Enlighten us.

And then what about Pakistan? I've never been there, but it seems completely different in every way from Nigeria. It also seems like a place of extremes from the super expensive Karachi to folks living simply in remote mountain villages. I've got a sense of some of the extreme differences between the haves and have nots from living in Detroit, but I don't think I have the slightest clue what it is like in Nigeria and Pakistan. And English is listed an official language in Pakistan - I was surprised to learn this.

Maybe there aren't many of us that do the calculations, but I have it figured to how much I have to make per hour, day, week, month, and year in order to make this profitable and worth my time. Since I am a fat American who consumes and wastes more than anyone else on the planet, I am guessing that my expenses are a lot more than a typical ESLer.

I guess that I am looking for a demographics lesson here.

I think it's a good thing to be asking these questions, because a lot of company owners (more than writers, seemingly) get racist in this biz. They don't have any contact with good customers or writers from the countries they scorn. It's not like taking a cross-section of essay mill customers and writers in the US or UK will bring up the cream of the crop-- the same is true in any other country. The truth is, there are people who scam customers and manufacture credentials everywhere. It might be easier to do in a developing country, because there is less risk of legal action, but you can bet your sweet ass that the corrupt practices here attributed to Africans, Pakistanis, Indians, etc. are also found right in the backyards (and sometimes front yards) of their self-righteous accusers.

editor75, all good points. It caused me to pause and think about credentials for a moment. Given what little I've seen in the business so far, I can now understand that an advanced degree doesn't necessarily mean that your skills are worth the ink on your diploma. At least for me, this is a sobering realization as I look around at my peers.

But back to the generalizing and racism. I'm not convinced that racism is at play as much as claimed by many ESLers. As editor75 so succinctly pointed out, we just get used to associating a certain behavior with a certain group. It then becomes easier to form some personal 'rules' of thumb to protect one's self. While I am a relative newbie to the academic ghostwriting world, I have been on the web since the beginning. The number of scammers coming out of Nigeria has been incredible. I applaud Nigerians for their ingenuity and persistence, but their more scrupulous fellow countrymen have to understand the world's view of anything Nigerian in cyber space. Their are just certain types of people that I avoid because they mostly cause me harm. I do so with caveats, but I cannot be expected to vet everybody. Lots of folks have written about this: generalizing to a group and applying stereotypes is an effective way to save your own ass. Our brains are hardwired to do this.

And oh yeah, is it ever true that scammers are in our front yard. I'd even go as far as to argue that the scammers in my front yard are even less honest and more dangerous than anybody coming out of Nigeria. The high-level scamming in the upper levels of academia and the corporate world is complex. Its all white collar stuff and called different names, like Ponzi Schemes, shareholder reports, and university athletic departments. You just can't walk in and say that you want to write so and so a model paper. And you have to be careful or you start to believe the crap that is coming out of your own mouth.

Anyway, I want to hear from the little guy. Yep, each and every one of us on this planet is at least a little racist. The worst racist is the one who truly believes that he is not racist. So lets get past this and enjoy at least one frank introduction from a scammer and a legit ESL writer. Antarch, I know that you are up to the task. Bring it!

Now, let's pause for a moment and imagine that your ungrammatical sentence was written by an ESL writer. . .

Being the smug, hair-splitting, ENL supremacist that you have proven to be since you joined this forum, I am certain that you'd have cited that error as compelling evidence of ESL writers' incompetence (if not illegitimacy), and why they should be avoided at all costs. That error, had it been made by an ESL writer, would have vindicated your rabid crusade against all things ESL (except, of course, ESL dollars from international students).

There is an important lesson here, but you are too stuck up to bother.

Okay Antarch, I deserved that. You win that battle. I was writing quickly in a conversational style and made a mistake or two. I have mentioned elsewhere that my English is worse than a lot of ESLers. And I'll also admit that I don't catch all of my typos. Now that this is out of the way, I would like to point out that you have entirely missed the point of this thread, which again speaks to you comprehension issues.

Now, let's pause for a moment and listen to your story. I promise not to attack your position if you tell us the real story behind how you became an ESL writer. Please, take this as an opportunity to dispel some of the myths. Tell us about your qualifications as an academic ghostwriter. You can certainly write and possess a good vocabulary.

And please tell me how it is that I am stuck up when I have openly admitted that I do not know anything about ESL writers? I am directly asking for someone like you to teach me something new.

Can we bury the hatchet just for a moment?

While I really do not wish to contribute to this topic because of the obnoxious nature of the thread starter, I could not resist the urge to make a quick clarification in response to the quoted comment.

There is no doubt that the incidence of Internet scams originating from Nigeria is quite high, even though only a very small minority of the country's population perpetrate such activities. Admittedly, numerous scams have been traced to these Nigerians, and the sheer amount of money they have managed to bilk out of their (often greedy and conniving) dupes is staggering. The fraudulent schemes come in different forms, and this reflects the "ingenuity and persistence" of these cyber criminals.

However, I have been an academic writer for a couple of years now and I have not encountered too many other Nigerians in this line of work. Academic writing is probably not an attractive 'industry' for Nigerian scammers; maybe because it is hard work, or because the rewards are sparse in comparison to the colossal amounts they make from their typical million-dollar schemes. I don't think many Nigerian fraudsters would be keen on trying to convince a few barely solvent students to part with the odd hundred dollars for a 2,000-word paper. It doesn't seem like the sort of sustainable, consistently high-margin swindle that these crooks tend to prefer.

What this means is that Nigerians have not participated enough in the international academic writing industry to gain a reputation of any sort - let alone for fraudulence - in that industry. In fact, I had no clue that Kenya had quite a reputation in the industry until I stumbled on Essay Scam a couple of months ago. This is not to say that the consequent stereotypes and sweeping generalisations are entirely valid.

That said, I understand the 'perception problem' that many Nigerians face in trying to do legitimate business on the Internet. What I do not understand is the rigid, implacable, and almost xenophobic reluctance of some cynics to accept that all Nigerians are not fraudulent - just as all Americans are not scrupulous.


Thank you very much.

I'll be back later to tell my story anyway.

I would like to point out that you have entirely missed the point of this thread, which again speaks to your comprehension issues.

There, I corrected the mistake. Now onto the original question?

For the sake of discussion, it would be great if you could present some proof.


We've already gone over this. Not a single, legit member of this forum has EVER made the claim that "all Nigerians are fraudulent." Work on your comprehension skills. You need to stop misappropriating YOUR confusion and misunderstanding as fact.

You've already proven that you are clueless in other areas, so you should probably stop assuming that your knowledge is a general indicator of reality.

Well, there is a thing called 'implication', and that is exactly what you and your fellow anti-ESL crusaders do ever so often in your ceaseless quest to convince students to avoid ESL writers altogether. You are being too clever by half by suggesting that you only have to make explicit claims in that regard for others to discern what you're up to.

By the way, it's ludicrous that you pea-brains think you can judge my comprehension skills. If you can't impugn my writing skills or legitimacy, then try to question my "comprehension skills" or "intelligence" on some level. If that also fails, then find something - anything - to discredit me! One just can't win with you naysayers.

Anyways, I just figured that contributing further to this 'discussion' (yeah, right) would only mean providing fodder for your mischief.

Antarch dude, chill out. Nobody is out to get you..........Just do your thing, work hard and pipe down.

It's only been four days, but I was hoping for at least one ESL writer to bite and tell us a little more about themselves. They have passed through here and have made off-topic comments. As I read through older threads, I find it striking that none of the regular ESL writers ever mention a word about their qualifications, history, or their writing situation. You folks really seem to be ghost writers in the literal sense of the term.

And please, spare us the anti-racist diatribes. It distracts from the conversation and actually does the opposite of what you intended.

Why would anyone do that? On the one hand you have your legit ESL/ENL writers who present their info to those who need to see it - their clients, and on the other you have scammers who lie anyway. So you're asking those who already put out their info to do it again, and those who lie all the time to lie some more...... For what purpose? Your amusement? LOL

Your initiative is completely meaningless and clearly biased. Not that I care much, just pointing the obvious. You're better off trolling the forum (you're really good at it, have to admit!).

I don't know. Maybe they would like share their experiences.


Absolutely not true. I have not seen a single bit of a backstory on any ESL writers here. I sincerely doubt that a client has ever asked, "Hey, by the way, how/why did you get into to business of academic ghost writing?" I suspect that the answer for most is complicated and interesting. Maybe I'm wrong and you all are as shallow as a puddle of ****.


Yes, part of it is for my amusement. Mostly, it is because I am curious how it is that someone based in Croatia finds themselves writing papers for kids in the U.S. I am also interested from a business perspective. I have access to resources and market shares that you do not, and visa versa.


Meaningless? There's no such thing. Everything has stated meaning the moment we apply words. Biased? I am absolutely biased in every way that you can imagine. You say this as if you have no biases in anything you say. Not caring that much? By virtue of responding, you are making a statement that you care quite a lot. And hell yeah I am trolling! Thank you for appreciating the sophistication at which I troll about. Instead of trolling to irritate or expose scammers (they do this on their own just well enough), I am trolling for information and interesting discussion.

So again, another ESLer like yourself is driving the thread off topic. It is not my intention to insult you Mr. wordsies, however you've got to bring a bit more game to my thread. And since I started this thread, and as long as you are here, I intend to hold you to task.

Just because you haven't seen something does not mean it is not there to be seen.

No, I really don't care whether you get any stories or not. It's your thread, so....... I just made an observation about why nobody responded.

Your thread was derailed the moment you posted it, so my post has no influence on the context.

Yes, meaningless to the point of agony. If somebody is interested in my (or some other writers) life story that's fine, but why the hell would I tell it to you? Or anyone else for that matter.

You're welcome, I appreciate a good troll when I see one.

This discussion is anything but interesting. At best it is vaguely entertaining, but mostly due to your perpetual (failed!) attempts to....well, you know better than me what is it you want to achieve :)

We are all biased, naturally, but you intentionally try to drive a wedge into what is already a strained relationship. Again, your business. Just making an observation.

Dear wordsies, Antarch, and the others,

Seriously, is the writing gig meeting your needs? Is it sustainable in that you can look forward to a decent retirement? Do you guys do other kinds of writing jobs? Local newspapers? Magazines? Editing? Teaching? Tutoring? This isn't my only gig, but at the moment I do prefer this kind of work over other jobs that come my way. The is certainly not a discussion that comes up with your clients and it is one that would likely help your business.

Sincerely,
Graphophobius


The master of contradictory statements speaks again. You've yet to make an observation, so I still do not know why you post responses while claiming that you don't care.

If you really believe that I am trying to drive a wedge, then there isn't much more to say. Believe what you want. Maybe the next time I'm in your neck of the woods we can schedule an ESL meetup and have a good circle jerk.

If one relies on academic writing gigs for a potential retirement then that writer has another thing coming. The only one who can actually rely on this business for their retirement will be owner of the company, or, if one is an independent writer, the freelancer. They are the ones that earn the big bucks. Everyone else just receives a pittance for their work. For which the writers from third world countries are thankful like the salary is manna from heaven. The writers cannot tell the difference. All they know, is that they are earning and can pay their way somehow based on the various writing jobs they do, no matter how badly. I can't fault them for trying, academic writing is far more simple than the other writing professions they might try to enter.

I'm from the USA but now live in Nigeria. I studied English Literature and, like many, turned to ghostwriting services due to economic pressures.

While grappling with ethical concerns, I found a balance between necessity and principles. Each ESL ghostwriter has a unique journey, shaped by personal circumstances.

These stories shed light on the complexity of the industry and encourage empathy in discussions.

Ghost writing service is indeed a great charm, by the way.

I have never had a problem with ESL writers who are honest with their clients and don't pretend to be native speakers.

The main problem that the industry has now are not the ESL writers, it is the ESL writers that use AI to write the papers. They manage to somehow come across a native speakers because of the AI behind their writing but, the AI is only as good as the writer himself. If the writer is ESL and does not have the ability to fact check the information provided and improve upon the material drafted by the program, then the ESL problem in academic writing just got worse. There is not a double problem in the sense that the student may read the writer's work as that of a native speaker, but he will be left with an error filled essay just the same because of the ESL writer's inability to edit and proof read the AI work.